UK trip: a visit to Glasgow. How about pressing Snooze 17 times?

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Jeff

View from the Burns' flat

After the Single-Minded conference wrapped up, we said our goodbyes and take a ride with some new friends to the Stansted airport. Sunday night we hopped on a plane bound north to Glasgow, Scotland.

The story goes on, but I would be remiss to mention that on Monday morning I apparently hit ‘snooze’ on my phone 17 times. A normally-would-be-sleeping-in 7:00 AM alarm turned into a 10 AM wakeup. Apparently the jet lag was finally being overcome! We were spent quite well from the conference, which was a pure joy. And the second leg of our journey had begun. In Glasgow we are visiting two missionary families, friends we know from the States, and who serve alongside one another albeit in two uniquely different church contexts in neighboring cities.

The ever-joyful Brian Luse picked us up at the Glasgow airport and drove us to join the end of the Sunday evening service at RE:HOPE Next Generation Bible Church in west Glasgow (Partick neighborhood). There we joined in the worship gathering until greeted with a hug by our gracious hosts, Scott and Monica Burns. We met “Scottica” when they were two single seminary students back in Portland at Multnomah Biblical Seminary. As God crossed our paths, our hearts were knit, and we knew that any trip to the UK must involve a glimpse of life and ministry of both faith-inspiring families.
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A quick update from London (day 1).

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Jeff

I think we are now a bit rested, though we have been on the go every since we left for the airport at noon on Thursday. Right now it is 5 PM here, though it is 9 AM back home in Oregon. A hour ago we video chatted with our kids, as they begun their day. Nana is taking great care of them! (Plus, we are so grateful for some really helpful technology!) One great piece of technology was inadvertently left at home — our new digital camera is waiting for us on the kitchen counter. (Oops!) So, as a result we likely will not have many photos to share.

The Single-Minded conference is going very well. A full group of singles from around England, representing I think a dozen churches. They are eager. Eager to listen to the Word, to learn, to grow, to encounter God. I dare say that they are rubbing off on me too — and not just because the voice in my head as I type this is narrating in a British accent! They’ve shown me what it means to be a people of the Book. They’re eager to hear God’s words, because they want to know God’s will, His ways, His worth. They want Him. We’ve spoken much about how Christianity is a Person, not a set of principles. You can apply yourself to all the principles in the world, but they will not in and of themselves change a person. We need the power of a new affection; we need Jesus. We need to rescue (save) us, and to change us. And so we are seeking to do what one friend on our missions team reminded me before we headed this way: “make Him famous.” He is worth being known, and we are seeking to make much of Him. May His name be great in this place!

I’ve really been struck by the community-minded nature of our fellows Brits. Someone said they would be stand-offish. Uh, nope. At least not these Brits. In our brief time with this group, we’ve notice how friendly they are, welcoming even. They are not into pretense and especially not overly into themselves. What a cup of cold water this is for this foreigner come across the pond to speak with them. They have welcomed us like old friends.

For the conference, our text has been Psalm 27. We’ve been all over Scripture but the main text in the first three sessions (see summaries by scrolling down under the “London” tag) have taken us through the first five verses of Psalm 27. In a couple hours we will pick up verses 6-9 in our fourth session — WORSHIP: the joyful sacrifice. I must especially applaud our hosts, Matt and Diana Kottman, who are as gracious as they are hardworking. They labor to shepherd this group well. Wow. They are brilliantly generous and full of courage.

Connected: becoming obedient by cultivating intimacy.

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Jeff

For many of us, the changing tide of the economy heaves us into the search for meaning, for the eternal. And in this search, we find Jesus having dinner with his closest friends hours before his death. During that dinner, we see a mysterious breaking of bread and drinking of wine. Two thousand years later, he calls us to that same dinner, in remembrance of him. And so we partake. The sacrament beckons us into the blessedness of following after him. “I am the true vine,” he says. And we are his branches. “Abide in Me, and I in you.” (John 15:1, 4 NASB)

When we partake of Christ through the bread and the cup, it’s as though we inhale him into our very being, carrying him around with us, his presence powering our lives. He says that if we don’t abide in him, we will be like the branches that don’t produce any fruit; they’re cut away and burned, useless, meaningless.

Apart from Christ, the world is meaningless. Apart from Jesus, we are nothing. We can do nothing. “Abide in me,” he says. “See the world from a new perspective.” But
how do we abide?

—
Kierkegaard helps us understand what it means to abide. He tells the story of a couple in love. The girl, seeing that her relationship with her beloved could be facing obstacles, asks him to wait for her. And he does. But what happens if the circumstances strain, making the wait too long? What if her beloved moves on? Kierkegaard says that when we cease to be loving, we were never loving in the first place. “For love abides.” (Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (New York: HarperPerennial, 2009), 281 – 82.)
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London » HOPE: the courage to wait.

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Jeff

What makes waiting so hard?

Psalm 27:13-14:

13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

We mentioned the first five themes for the Single-Minded conference we are speaking at, beginning tomorrow near London: confidence, vision, beauty, worship. and consistency. The final theme:

#6 Hope: the courage to wait (Psalm 27:13-14).

We all are waiting for something. Not just singles. But it is true that many perhaps deep down still have the ache and longing for that glorious counterpart hand-picked by God. Whether waiting for a wedding or a job or a ministry opportunity or a change of scenery, we spend much of our life waiting. So we must learn how to do it well. God’s word is replete with exhortations to wait, and wait well. Will we wait on God or wait on circumstances? What is the difference and how can we tell? Here we’ll learn how to wait for the Lord with expectancy without expectation. With confidence and security we can be strong and let our hearts take courage and wait, wait for the LORD.

Married people can tell us how waiting for a spouse is a fruitless endeavor, for both husbands or wives make awful gods. Single people are not ‘waiting’ for their life to be meaningful, as if having a spouse is the end-game. (Or being in a relationship is all that matters.) Waiting for the LORD is the true joy; and because our Maker is our Husband, we can daily encounter the most loving, generous, courageous, and supportive spouse ever.

As Kari frequently writes, there is a world of difference between having expectations and living in expectancy.

London » the level path.

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Jeff

Consistency and stability are undervalued in our day. Why is that?

Psalm 27:10-12:

10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.

We mentioned the four themes for the Single-Minded conference outside London: confidence, vision, beauty, and worship. Here’s a preview of the fifth theme, with one more to follow.

#5 Consistency: the level path (Psalm 27:10-12).

Few characteristics are more critical to the Christian life than consistency. In our experience, the single life can sometimes be characterized by extreme ups and downs, difficulty finding balance, and a challenge to develop the kind of structure and consistency so necessary for long-term growth. Certainly married folks struggle here too, but are often forced into structure and consistency due to the fact that a family depends on it! The “freedom” of singleness can be both blessing and curse. Too much downtime can lead to sin or unhealthy habits. Lack of accountability can lead to laziness. Freedom and flexibility in a schedule can lead to haphazard patterns of life. So ask, “Teach me your way, O Lord,” and we pray that He will “lead us on a level path.” A level life is a life of joy and stability, the soil where godly fruit can abound.

Verse 10 has been included with this session, for a related point shall be made: no matter our family of origin, and even the effect in our lives of years of hurts, habits or hangups along an un-level path, we can become new people with a new trajectory — and a level path — in life. What ‘has been’ does not have to remain the norm. The Gospel takes the can’ts and wont’s and remakes them into new people — who are being made new daily by the Spirit. The Father has welcomed us. We are His children. He will teach us His ways. In this session we will look at the daily practice of abiding in the presence of the Father, and preaching the Gospel to ourselves continually.

Only a fraction.

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Jeff

“Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many … have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification … drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.”

—Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 101 (emphasis added).

Read chapter 1: Renewal as a Way of Life [PDF], or see a preview on Google Books

London » The joyful sacrifice.

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Jeff

Worship is our joyful sacrifice.

Psalm 27:6-10:

6 And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.

We mentioned the first (confidence), second (vision), and third (beauty) themes for our speaking in London. Here’s a preview of the fourth theme, of six:

#4 Worship: The joyful sacrifice (Psalm 27:6-10).

Like beauty, we’ve missed the meaning of true worship. True worship, in Spirit and in truth, should encompass all of life. We worship through our work, our words, and our witness to the world (1 Peter 2). And as God delivers us from every evil, on a daily basis, our response should and will be a joyful sacrifice of praise. A loud sacrifice of praise – one of shouts and singing. We see from Psalm 27 that worship should be 1) Sacrificial, 2) Joyful, 3) Musical. The greatest battles have been won by worship in God’s Word, and our greatest battles demand that we not forsake this critical spiritual discipline in our daily lives.

Flying football.

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Jeff

Alaska Air commercial featuring Portland Timbers head coach John Spencer:
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/dhlhV0iCsgM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0

Awesome.

Here in the States we call this game “soccer,” and instead call “football” a game that only involves using one’s feet to kick in the margins of the game: to begin halves (kickoffs), when you’ve given up your turn (to punt), want to grab a few points (field goal), or just scored (point-after-try and then another kickoff). All of the kicking in football happens in “special teams.” In professional American Football (the NFL) those teams practice separately, have special coaching staffs, and run their own special plays. It’s kind of an oddity. Football fans like to crack jokes about “soccer” — that the game is boring, there’s not enough scoring, and the game is too long. In reality it is our “football” that is a little bit silly; consider there are only about 11 minutes of game action in an NFL game. A whole lot of grown men standing around; and then running into each other.

Even over here in little America there are avid football fans. (And by “football” I mean “soccer,” which is the true football). Listen as Portland Timbers fans all join in together for a chant: “You Cannot Stop Us … We Are The Rose City”:
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4,178 days: Gritty, gusty, tough and resourceful.

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Jeff

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks for becoming the 2011 NBA Champions. The Dirk Side won over the Dark Side.

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle used terms such as grit, guts, mental toughness and resourcefulness to describe his team, saying the men he coached embodied those attributes more than any other team he’d been around. (That’s saying a lot; he played on the ’86 Celtics.) [See a great article by ESPN.com’s J.A. Adande.]

The most outspoken and fan-like owner in sports was especially silent during this trip to the NBA Finals. After the game he said:

“I learned chemistry matters, that it’s a team game. That you have to have players that believe in each other and trust each other and trust your coach. And that it’s a process. And that it doesn’t happen overnight.”
—Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (breaking his media embargo for the NBA Playoffs and Finals); via the Daily Dime on ESPN.com

There are few shortcuts in life. Sports and business commenter Darren Rovell noted that Mark Cuban had to wait 4,178 days for a title. Perseverance and faithfulness pay off. This morning he had company on the plane back to Dallas. I don’t know much about Mark Cuban, but it appears the man is growing in humility and gratitude, which is helping him muster the courage to be generous towards others.

Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team LeBron James left last July in “The Decision” to “take [his] talents to South Beach” after six years together, tweeted that there are NO SHORTCUTS. There may be some shortcuts, but ultimately we won’t be successful in life over the longhaul if we take the easy road.

Let’s be clear: neither road for either team was easy.

The constant scrutiny, the overplayed commentary on the faux coughs (D-Wade and LeBron apparently mocking Nowitzki, caught on local media). Some would say they did this to themselves. I agree. But it still has to be an overwhelming ordeal, self-inflicted or not. They began the year celebrating themselves, long before the season. And today the Miami Herald has a Macy’s ad offering Heat championship gear. Oops.

The Miami Heat of 2010-2011 have been together for about 340 days. Under Cuban’s leadership the Mavericks invested 4,178 days pursuing a championship. That should be celebrated. It’s not so much that they waited so long. It’s that the persevered so diligently.

I wasn’t able to watch game 6, but was rooting from afar for the Mavericks. Something about their non-superstar superstar Dirk Nowitzki makes we want to root for him and their team. (And not just because we were born two days apart.) His whole adult life is wrapped around pursuing the great prize, and in the off-season he holes up in a gym and works on his game. Gritty, gutsy, tough. No excuses. During interviews he grabs the mic and speaks eloquently, never deriding the opposition or mocking them. The young man from Würzburg, Germany seems like a class act to me. One of those people who is the same from far away as when you see them up close.

The fallout from the Heat’s loss will be as big a story as the Mavs win. The Heat were supposed to win; they almost bought themselves a championship, and the fear was this would become the new norm. The Mavs took a different route, and though they too are spending millions there are no easy fixes. After the game LeBron James commented on those who were rooting against him:

“At the end of the day, all the people rooting for me to fail, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live. . . . They can get a few days or a few months on being happy about not only myself but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point.”

He’s right. We all woke up to our same mediocre lives. He woke up to the same personal problems he had yesterday as well. That’s true of all of us. Sports give us a mini-escape from reality, but we must face our problems and persevere through them. We are all witnesses to the challenges of life.

In the face of Dirk’s brilliant fade-away jumper, the Miami Heat probably wish the criticism would just go away. Of course they will rebound. Life treats talented people very kindly, especially those who are a business-in-and-of-themselves; LeBron’s ‘brand’ will take a hit, but after next year’s pending lockout he’ll have another chance to courageously pursue faithfulness and perseverance.

Actually, during the lockout, when the games are not televised or scrutinized — that’s when one must persevere and be faithful. If we would be awesome when everyone’s watching, we must do the daily work when no one’s there to see. If we’re honest, that’s the title we desire: to be called faithful and courageous. It takes grit, guts, and resourcefulness. A ring is just bling; becoming a faithful person who perseveres is the real deal.

All of it makes we want to get a new shirt.

[Thanks to @darrenrovell for most of these links.]